The curling hack is a foothold secured to the ice of a curling rink. Present day hacks are conventionally rubber-lined cups sunken into the ice. The design of the conventional hack has remained substantially unchanged for over 50 years. A recent modification of the conventional design, the "Marco Hack", provides an extended length, slightly convex, sloping rear tread surface and a reduced size notch between the rear tread surface and the front flat surface. Both of these hacks suffer from certain disadvantages. These include a limited contact area with the shoe sole in actual use, as can be demonstrated by the wear pattern on the tread surfaces. The known hacks are also made of a relatively hard rubber, which is necessary in order to provide adequate wear resistance. However, the hard rubber has a relatively low coefficient of friction, especially at low temperatures, so that foot slippage can occur. The known hacks are also prone to the collection of ice and debris in the notch formed between the two tread sections.
The present invention is concerned with various aspects of a novel hack that deal with these and other problems of the prior an devices.